Without prejudice Councillor Melky’s contribution to Council was an endless …

Without prejudice Councillor Melky’s contribution to Council was an endless boring monotone of vage undirected ideas, inconsiderate and disrespectful, forcing any kind of intelligent discussion from the chambers and into the corridors.
Councillor Melky hung like a lead weight around the neck of this Council. Do not give him another chance! Councillor Melky belongs where everyone has put him….on the bottom of the list!

Steve Brown Also Commented

Unpredictable, unaligned and undaunted: Cr Eli MelkyIt appears like many, Evelyne, that you don’t understand the role of your elected members on Council. Councillors are your voice, your devil’s advocate to the bureaucracy. Bureaucracy operate the machine, elected members try and steer it, usually after the event, a difficult process complicated a lot further by having a loose cannon who undermines the elected members’ decision time and time again simply to grab a headline…
Being on Council is not about being famous, it’s not about grand speeches, it’s about the operation of our community’s business, the Town of Alice Springs. Your elected members are there to supervise that process on the community’s behalf.

Recent Comments by Steve Brown

Independents now ineffective?Alex, as always the history is interesting and I’m quite sure no one will be volunteering to depart on this occasions either, however the point that I am making is that it is no longer allowable to run as a party associated independent and given that fact how can anyone lawfully “become” a party associated “independent” while in Office?
Then of course there is the fact that these people have portrayed themselves as independents and were elected on that basis.
Basic honesty and decency would say that they remain independent or go back to the people.
Eli … well if anyone was going to approve of directionless political flip flopping with your track record, it would be yourself. You might want to note however, that a bit of noise in the media is not effective opposition, its called grandstanding!
Further to that, it was not me that made the call on the ineffectiveness or otherwise of both Terry and Robyn as MLAs.
They have done that themselves, loudly and clearly in the media! I am simply picking up on their stated ineffectiveness, asking if they consider themselves ineffective, surely we, the electorate, should do the same.
Further to all of that, in the Territory Parliament the official Opposition has to come from a registered party. And candidates for registered parties have to declare themselves as such in the election process.
I am questioning the legality of making the switch after being elected, because it could be construed that it was always their intention, therefore throwing into doubt they were ever independent.
I think the electorates are also entitled to ask, are independents turning on the official Opposition instead of concentrating whatever energy and resources they have, on holding the Government to account. Is that effective opposition?

Council shoots Anzac precinct gallery down in flamesJust another moment in the most inept and arrogant handling of a project proposal I have ever encountered.
At this place in time we have to ask ourselves if the intent to deliver a gallery was ever there. Was it simply smoke and mirrors, covering no real intention to commit funds?
What else could it be when, if the intent was genuine, the NT Government could resolve the issues with council with one meeting!
In that meeting all they must do is commit to working “with” council on the project design and implementation, as has been done on many previous occasions.
What is so dammed hard about that?
Unless either are completely arrogant, just plain stupid or a totally inept combination of both.
Whatever it is, one thing is absolutely for certain this project, if there ever was one, is now very much at risk!
So where are you, local Labor people?
Where are our local Members?
Where the bloody hell are you?
If you believe in us, in Alice Springs and its future just walk into council and resolve this issue, cooperatively!
Yes, today!
If you can’t bring yourselves to do that, then you deserve to be condemned by your community.
What a bloody disgrace!

Govt spokesman hits out at Opposition over floor priceGood on ya Garry, now your making some sense.
This floor price idiocy will be Michael Gunner’s Carbon Tax, nothing is more certain.
Michael went to a great deal of trouble making absolutely certain that Territorians understood that there would be “no floor price on alcohol under their government”.
They understood the electoral consequences. They have fooled themselves into believing that introducing one on the basis of Justice Riley’s report would somehow absolve them of their fervent promise.
It most certainly does not and it most certainly won’t protect them from the consequences!
Territorians are simply fed up with ill conceived academic social experiments obviously completely devoid of real world experience. The average three year old could tell you that they will have no beneficial effect.
The implementation in fact having the affect of penalising those who work hard, suffer long, doing the right thing by their community, simply to get at a small minority intent on self destruction at any cost.
This action sends completely the wrong signals to both parties: Hard work and responsibility penalised; sloth, while not rewarded, creating a penalty for everyone else. This has an unhealthy affect on the mental health of the wider community feeding anger and disenchantment, creating resentment, some directed at Government as it should be, but also at problem drinkers, worsening their acceptance by community and their plight along with it.
The mental Health benefits for the average person of having a relaxing drink or two with their mates are immeasurable, and I’m pretty bloody certain that Territorians aren’t going to give them up!
Punishing the entire community like a school teacher keeping in the whole class to punish one naughty child is simply unjust and cannot be justified by result!
Let us re-commit to mandatory rehabilitation while toughening up on secondary supply and the service of alcohol to drunks!
As for the tiny unelected non representative group who constantly winge about consumption and put forward these ridiculous solutions, why not do both yourselves and more importantly the Territory a favour: Find somewhere else to live.

Ice Age in AliceNo matter what issue is raised there is always the predictable head in the sand or more likely protect my own backside response from the few. This is no matter what the outcome for community. It is rather sad and sickening.
Nothing would make me happier than if I was wrong in regards to growing use of ice in our communities.
I wonder, did you actually read the article above, Eugenes Mate?
Might be time you and your fictitious mates went along to DASA and had a good talk.
I am suggesting a heavy handed community response before ice becomes endemic, not after the fact.
Believe me, once it’s here at those levels, there is almost no way back.
So yes, if we have genuine, as opposed to a bought and paid for 9 to 5 concern for our community, we damn well should be panicking about the level of ice penetration and we should be reacting harshly against it, not wasting millions on pathetic ineffective social experiments around further restricting access to alcohol, adding fuel to the fire while Rome burns.

Ice Age in AliceIt’s good to see this issue finally raised in a public forum, a massively escalating issue in both the town and surrounding communities for a long time.
Make absolutely no mistake about it, some of that escalation is a direct outcome of various social experiments from governments, measures to curb the use of alcohol, particularly increasing the price, either in dollar terms or in the difficulty of obtaining it.
Worse, while raising the price of alcohol is a direct slap in the face, extra tax on the average hard working citizen of the Territory, it will inevitably lead us into a much harder place as those intent on self destruction switch to a cheaper easier to obtain evil that is ice.
The attitudes towards this escalating issue so amply displayed by Russell’s comment “we can put dollars saved on alcohol abuse towards ice rehab”.
Yep, that’s the attitude of the “Bureaucrats Alcohol Action Coalition” BAAC.
They are back again and along with them, escalating mayhem.
Not only are their social experiments just shifting the issue at the expense of community goodwill, they are leading us at ever increasing pace into the vile dark horror that is an ice endemic.
It is far more violent and far more destructive than anything we’ve seen locally to date.
As a worker in the building industry I have rubbed shoulders with many consumed by this vile substance.
I’ve seen the lights go out in the brightest of eyes.
The issue requires a massive community response providing education to the kids, rehab to the usurers and a massive crackdown on both supply and use.
Forced time away via a prison sentence is often the only useful intervention.
Believe me, having witnessed first hand the horrors of this drug, alcohol abuse should, when taking preventative actions, be considered very much the lesser of two evils!
Action against alcohol that drives abusers to ice should be considered as in keeping with the Territory Governments new theme as Boundless Stupidity!